ABSTRACT
Over three successive decades, structured environmental policy in the Netherlands has developed into a full policy area with its own characteristics and interrelations. As we have seen in Chapter 1, these interrelations give environmental policy a goal-oriented character. Environmental policy therefore has a dominant influence, particularly on spatial planning. It is not surprising, then, that this meets with resistance from spatial policymakers, for whom striking a balance between the various interests involved has almost become a goal in itself. Partly for this reason, the goal-oriented approach to environmental policy has come under pressure - "standards systems have always been the instrument for shaping environmental policy" (Kuijpers, in Bakker 1997; 5). The charm of the simplicity that characterised environmental standards policy had to 'hold its own' against the undeniable complexity of environmental/spatial conflict.
